School Transportation Grants On The State Budget Chopping Block

As part of Montana's special legislative session, Governor Bullock is asking public schools to forego tens of millions of dollars in the coming years in state transportation block grants.

Public schools would share about 6 percent of the burden to fill the state’s $227 million dollar budget shortfall under the proposed Senate Bill 2. It would require school districts in Montana to start tapping into their reserve funds to pay for transportation costs, like buses, for students.

Dennis Parman with the Montana Rural Education Association says that could cause some smaller districts without much of a financial reserve to raise property taxes.

"When you can’t use your reserves anymore you’re going to go to your local taxpayers."

But Parman’s association and representatives of MEA-MFT, and the School Administrators of Montana, among others, say K-12 schools are willing to do their share to help fill the state’s budget gap. It could, however, cause pain among districts in the state, they say.

Senate Bill 2 would eliminate the transportation block grants in 2019, saving the state nearly $12 million in general fund spending that year.

State lawmakers Monday took up a proposal by Governor Steve Bullock to increases fees on some property owners to fund fire protection in the state. It's part of the governor's package of legislation aimed at patching the $227 million hole in the state budget.

House Bill 4 proposes freeing up $13 million in the state's general fund by asking property tax payers to take on more of the cost for state firefighting preparedness. This bill would ask property owners in eastern Montana to pay fees that people in western parts of the state already pay.

A proposal to temporarily charge a fee for state management of Montana's workers' compensation fund drew strong opposition as lawmakers began a special session to address a $227 million budget shortfall.

Montana is facing a state budget crisis. The state is projected to have about $200 million less than it needs to fund everything in the budget that lawmakers and the governor agreed to this year. That much is clear, but there's a lot of disagreement about why the $200 million hole is there, and what to do about it.

Today and tomorrow we're going to take a look why the state budget is so far out of whack.